Monday Noon, Los Robles Lodge
925 Edwards Ave., Santa Rosa, California

The Rotary International Foundation

Call to order:

President Brian called the meeting to order promptly at 12:30PM.

Pledge:

Dutifully performed by Steve Cohen

Rotary Moment:

Three quotes were given by John Meislahn. One was on furniture polish, another was on ex-wives, and the third was on the influence we have on children.

Visiting Rotarians:

One of our newest members, Kyle Stelling, did a stellar job of introducing various visitors, one of whom was the esteemed President of the Windsor club, Maureen McDaniel. Maureen was also the co-speaker along with husband, PDG Mike Merrill)

Guests:

None today

Sunshine Report:

Ironically the Sunshine reporter Susan Nowacki was ill today. It was mentioned that Ginny Pitts' husband Bob has had a heart attack and will be going in for bypass surgery. We all wish him a quick recovery.

President Brian then gave notice of a thank you letter forwarded by Roger Olson for the club's donation to the Pacific Coast Air Museum.

Announcements:

Standing in for Ginny Pitts, Past President Jim Valinoti ('97-'98) gave a report on tickets that are available for the special up-coming Luncheon Celebration in Honor of America's Veterans. This event is a joint effort of Santa Rosa's 5 Rotary Clubs and 4 Kiwanis Clubs.

Cost is $15 and the scheduled speaker is General George "Jim" Eade, USAF Ret. General Eade is a 4 star General who has served in three hot wars and one long cold one. During his active duty he was responsible for NATO nuclear defenses in the European Theater. Currently he serves the White House as a consultant on the national security policy. Given that the program is to honor vets, it should easily be a sellout, but with the advent of September 11th, General Eade's insight on the Middle Eastern corridor will be both interesting and enlightening. Tickets will again be available at our meeting next Monday (10/22) but in limited number only, so if you wish to attend please purchase them ahead of time. You are encouraged to invite a veteran to join you for lunch. If you don't know a veteran but would like to invite one to be your guest, we can hook you up with one. Just call Jim (829-2300 or Jim Wieschendorff @ 539-7589)

Harry Rubins has raffle tickets for sale for the Rotary Foundation. The Foundation dinner is November 10th for $75. The raffle tickets are $10 apiece and rumor is, one of the grand prizes is a stay at the DG's home on Lake Tahoe.

Arnie Carston gave us a crab feed update. 22 tables have been bought and many donations are coming in. We are looking for people to put together a dinner at a winery or other fabulous venue to raffle off. Roger Olson has told us he has gotten a plane ride in a bomber over the Bay Area to auction off…unfortunately Roger says that you must supply your own bombs.

Jim Hinton spoke about his Projects Committee that consists of Jeri Arnold, Terri Evans and Susan Nowacki. They meet periodically at Jim's house and drink wine and eat stinky cheese while his wife is away. Janet Codding was reported to have attended the meeting as to evaluate donation requests. They are looking for donation requests that will make a substantial difference to the charity. Club members are the best way to get the word out that the club has money to donate. Applications are on our club web site. (http://www.sr-rotary-west.org/contribution_request.html)

Recognition:

Past President Phil Talamantes ('86-'87) just got back from 37 days of vacationing aboard a private yacht in the Puget Sound. The boat belongs to his Son's Father in law whose non-fat cooking inadvertently put Phil on a diet. By default Phil lost 5 lbs. A $25 fine was paid for this excursion and the weight loss.

Bob Marigo ('90-'91) was called upon to take the blame for a very distant cousin, or at least someone who shares his name. Seems that it was reported in an unnamed newspaper that one Robert Marigo was arrested for smuggling ivory. President Brian let that go but fined Bob for his semi-new 2000 Cadillac. President Brian charged him a penny times the year of the car but when Bob started writing a check for $2000 his tablemates quickly did the math and told him the fine was only $20. (Bob dodges yet another bullet, but just wait until he and Mike Moore and Jim Sullivan and spouses come back from their upcoming cruise through the locks of the Panama Canal! The greenbacks will really fly then! -Ed.)

Past President Bill Gittins ('96-'97) stood up and was acknowledged for having 3 paintings win at the 2001 Sonoma County Harvest Fair. For his "Sonoma Coast Storm" he got a 1st Place in the seascape category, for his "Last Redwoods" he won 5th place, and then his "Before the Grapes" won 1st Place Best Of Show/Best Use of Medium. Then got to pay the club $25 for this accomplishment. Great job! And Congratulations Bill! (Some of our more insightful members have already purchased paintings from Bill! Guess that's called "buying low?" -Ed.)

"Sonoma Coast Storm"	"Last Redwoods"	"Before the Grapes"

Ray Schofield is now a Grandfather….again. Number 8 was born last weekend, a new grandson, Aidan. He put in $100 towards his wife's Paul Harris.

Arnie Carston just got back from a vacation in Russia, Sweden and Norway. He plans to go to Mexico next week for the cooking tour he got this year. Arnie is also a grandfather again. Grandson Jack was born while he was gone. For all this he paid $100 to start a new Paul Harris Fellowship, and an additional $20 went to the club.

Raffle:

The Raffle was won by our Treasurer Ray Mattison, who got to pick out the colored rock, but chose the wrong one. Joel Burdick won the bottle of wine.

Program:

Our joint speakers were introduced by Foundation Chair Harry Rubins. The bio's are too lengthy to report here but very impressive. The dynamic duo of PDG Mike Merrill and wife Maureen McDaniel. The topic of the meeting was the Rotary International Foundation.

There was a short technology snafu that delayed the presentation and Maureen told us they have done over 100 of these discussions with no electronic problems - until today.

The Rotary Foundation's mission is to support RI and they spent $55 Million last year, mostly on scholarships and grants. Rotary spends over $100 Million each year on projects all over the world. And $1.2 Billion from 1945 to present has been spent on Rotary projects worldwide.

SR West Rotary has contributed over $300,000 and to give you an example of how that amount of money could be spent on just a few of the many programs Rotary International funds:

12 Ambassador Scholarships
600 clean water wells
10,000 sight restorations
600,000 Polio vaccinations

This year's fund raising goal for the Foundation is $61 Million, or about $125 per Rotarian worldwide. We can give by our Paul Harris Fellow Sustaining Memberships, Benefactors, Major Donors, or Bequest Society.

The Rotary Foundation also runs the largest Scholarship fund in the world and now has 7 universities worldwide that offers a Master Program in International Studies with Rotary in mind to solve problems and resolve conflicts.

There is a new Community Assistance Fund now available to clubs to apply for $1000 for a humanitarian project of their choice. The District Governor has $10,000 available to District 5130 for such projects.

Thanks to Rotary, Polio has been eradicated in most the world. This has a global savings effect and Rotarians have given over $28 Million to Polio Plus, and have committed to $430 Million more. Since 1998 Polio cases have dropped 99%. Mike and Maureen showed pictures of a trip to India where the vaccinations were given out. Thanks for the informative meeting M&M!

Your outstanding reporter for today was John Meislahn
Your Editor is Jim Valinoti

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STANDBY BULLETIN WRITERS ARE:
John PALMER & Tom LAENGLE

Changes or comments?

Contact Jim Valinoti at valinoti@sonic.net or (707) 829-2300.

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